Aurangzeb was himself mistaken in sounding the death of Mararashtra Dharma and the vitality it had breathed into the movement of Hindu Revival in Maharashtra. Like so many other movements, personal or parochial, he thought the Maratha movement too must have received its death-blow at the death of its able leader Shivaji and by the fact of his being succeeded by his brave but incapable son Sambhaji; so Aurangzeb thought h is opportunity had come. With the vast resources of an Empire at his command in men and money from Kabul to Bengal, he descended into the Deccan with an army estimated at about three lakhs of all arms. Even Shivaji had never to face such overwhelming forces at a stretch. Aurangzeb was not wrong in his calculations, for the whole of the weight of the Mogul Empire thus masterfully concentrated could have crushed a kingdom ten time as large as the new and disorganised Maratha state. To make any attempt to resist the Moguls yet more hopeless, the Marathas had for their leader a man quite incapable of guiding a great nation. In addition to this incapacity to lead, Sambhaji had a bad temper, and at times indulged in excesses.
But inspite of all these drawbacks and failure to rise equal to the occasion in life, the son of Shivaji proved worthy of his father and of the national movement which he had to represent in rising, not only equal, but even superior to circumstances in the hour of his death. Even when he stood a hopeless prisoner in the front of his ferocious foes, he stood erect and refused to barter his religion for his life. He indignantly refused to accept the alternative to death of embracing Islam, and, affirming allegiance to the faith of his forefathers, hurled insult for insult against the Muslim persecutors, their logic and their theology. Finding it impossible to tame the Maratha lion into a lap-dog Aurangzeb ordered to put the ‘kaffir’ to death. But the threats failed to overawe the son of Shivaji. His eyes were pierced and pulled out by red-hot iron pincers, his tongue was cut out piece meal. But still it all failed to overawe the royal martyr. At last he was beheaded, falling a victim to Muslim fanaticism, but bringing eternal glory to the Hindu race. Sambhaji, by this one act of supreme self-sacrifice, represented the spirit of Maharashtra Dharma—of the great Hindu Revival—as nothing else could have done. A leader of freebooters would have acted otherwise. All the material gains of Shivaji weTe lost beyond hope. His treasury was emptied out, his castles were dismantled and destroyed, his very capital fell into the hands of the alien foes. Sambhaji could not prevent it all. Sambhaji could not preserve the material gains of Shivaji. But sambhaji, by his great martyrdom, not only preserved, but added immensely to the brilliance and strength of Shivaji’s moral and spiritual gains. The War of Hindu Liberation gained mightily in grandeur and moral strength, when it could thus feed itself on the blood of its royal martyr to the Hindu faith.